MEXICO CITY (AP)
Only 52 weeks and a day are left before Dec. 21, 2012, when somebelieve the Maya predicted the end of the world.
Unlike enthusiasts of other doomsday theories who suggestputting together survival kits, southeastern Mexico, the heart of Mayaterritory, plans a yearlong celebration.
Mexico's tourism agency expects to draw 52 million visitors bynext year only to the regions of Chiapas, Yucatan, Quintana Roo, Tabasco andCampeche. All of Mexico usually lures about 22 million foreigners in a year.
It's selling the date, the Winter Solstice in the coming year,as a time of renewal. Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayancalendar.
"The world will not end. It is an era," said YeanetZaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home toCancun. "For us, it is a message of hope."
Cities and towns in the Mayan region on Wednesday will start theyearlong countdown. In Chiapas the town of Tapachula on the Guatemalan borderwill start a countdown on an 8-foot digital clock in the main park exactly ayear before the mysterious date.
In the nearby archaeological site of Izapa, Maya priests willburn incense, chant and offer prayers.
In the tropical jungle of Quintana Roo, between the resorts ofCancun and Playa del Carmen, people are putting messages and photos in a timecapsule that will be buried for 50 years. Maya priests and Indian dancers willperform a ritual at the time capsule ceremony.
Yucatan state has announced plans to complete the Maya Museum ofMerida by next summer.
"People who still live in Mayan villages will host ritesand burn incense for us to go back in time and try to understand the Mayanwisdom," Zaldo said.
The Maya reputation for wisdom has people taking the allegedprediction seriously.
The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D.to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy
Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time inroughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacrednumber for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21,2012.
The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state ofTabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.
Believers have taken the end-of-the world fears to the Internetwith hundreds of thousands of websites and blogs.
"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folksthat were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayanscholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fearsget projected on the Maya calendar."
Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares thesupposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared allcomputer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.
For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidencethat dates beyond 2012 were recorded.
The blogosphere exploded with more speculation when Mexico'sarchaeology institute acknowledged on Nov. 24 a second reference to Dec. 21,2012, on a brick found at other ruins.
"Human beings seem to be attracted by apocalyptic ideas andalways assume the worst," Gronemeyer said.
It's all a bit frustrating for serious Mayan researchers whosefield has made huge strides in recent years.
"This new historical and archaeological knowledge is somuch more interesting and mind-blowing than the fantastical claims about Mayaprophecies one sees on TV, books or on the Internet," David Stuart, aspecialist in Mayan epigraphy at the University of Texas at Austin, said in anemail to The Associated Press. "We're dealing with thousands of newlydeciphered texts and trying to weave together a coherent picture of Mayahistory and culture, which to me is as exciting as it gets."
While the 2012 hype might increase interest in the Maya,"that will probably be offset by the long and difficult effort ahead tocorrect the ubiquitous lies and misconceptions, even after 2012 has come andgone," he wrote.
Jonnie Channell of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says that 2012"is going to be one of those things where people are definitely going tohave to plan," not because of impending apocalypse, but because hotelrooms in the Maya region are probably going to be full.
Channell, who owns Maya Sites Travel Services, is surprised thatshe already has 24 reservations for three tour packages she is offering to majorMayan ruin sites in the week leading up to the solstice.
She named one "Beginning the New Calendar Era Under theYucatan Stars."
"We put together these tours, and we've got lots ofsignups, and people are excited about it," she said. "If anybody thinkit's going to be the end of the world, then they better stay home."
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Associated Press writer Mark Stevenson contributed to thisreport.
